What Saturday Looked Like

So much going on this weekend, but it's all been doable.

• Baseball auditions tryouts for Thomas (after years of thinking/talking about auditions, I'm trying to make the switch to sound less an "orch dork" and more like a "soccer mom".);
• an overnighter for Emily;
• babysitting extravaganza for Amanda;
• a WIRB packet to be completed by me;
• finishing season 2 of Prison Break for Jack and Emily...

Yes, lots of stuff. Here are a couple of other things we did yesterday... I actually have pictures of these.

BASKETBALL. The Ravens dominated in another nobody-keeps-score YMCA basketball game. Our team is coached by Coach Doug, who happens to be the (very active) grandfather of one of the boys on the team. The assistant is Doug's son-in-law Tim who also happens to be the NTHS Rams boy's varsity basketball coach. We have it made in the coaching department, for sure. We also have it made in the "tall girl" department in the form of one lovely named Helena. She is a sweetie. And tall. And we're really glad that she's on our team. Look...



This girl is really going to be an amazing player as the grades go by.



Some of the kids, Max, Raiden, Thomas, Haven, Helena; Coach Tim, Coach Doug

Here a few shots of the game on Saturday.



Thomas is #39 you see on the left. Our ref was Lawrence. We know him from the high school program at church where he is an intern.



Coaches talking to the kids at half-time.





Coach Doug is talking to Thomas and a couple of other players. Coach Tim is giddy with excitement as he day dreams about how close he is to the end of the high school boy's  basketball season and how he can soon get onto better things, like coaching Lady Rams golf! (See Amanda's writing about golf here) Hey Tim, I think you better go get on the golf sweatshirt order, PRONTO.




Thomas, the Defender of The-Girl-in-Braids-Who-Keeps-Running-the-Stinkin'-Ball-Down-the-Court



There is the Braided Girl, at it again. No stealing of the ball in this league.





Thomas shoots, SWISH, and scores! Two points for the Ravens in the non-scored game.



Besides taking pictures at the game, I also was able to quickly browse through my newest Food Network magazine; The Italian Issue.

LOVING this subscription Jack gave me as a Christmas present!





In classic form, I looked through it, ooed and awed at several of the recipes inside, and cooked something for dinner that wasn't really a recipe. Well, part of it was. The pizza crust part. The rest I made up. And here it is... Chicken and Peppers Pizza with Pesto Cream Sauce. Yum!

The finished pizza



The finished pizza, UP CLOSE AND YOU CAN PRACTICALLY TASTE IT HERE!



Here's the quick run down on the recipe:

Use your favorite pizza crust recipe. Or boboli. I used this one (click right here) which was similar to others I have used in the past.  Once you have the dough done, put half in the freezer for another day. Roll out the other half using corn meal on a pizza stone or pan and bake at 400 for about 7 minutes. Pop any bubbles that try to sneak up on you. While the crust is cooking, cube 1 good sized chicken breast, season the meat with 2 cloves of fresh garlic (pressed or minced) and saute in a little olive oil until cooked through.

To make the sauce, first make a basic white sauce. Melt 1 T butter in a small sauce pan. Add 1 T flour to make a paste. All at once add 1 cup milk and wisk on medium high heat until mixture thickens. Then, add 1/4 cup pesto... I buy mine allready made at Costco. There- sauce is done.

Assemble the pizza: use most of the sauce and spread it onto the cooked crust. You can either use up the extra sauce on something else or save it for dipping your pizza in. Put the cooked chicken on, put on sliced bell peppers (I like red, yellow or orange) and top with grated mozarella. You can also add whatever else you like, because afterall, it is pizza. I think next time artichoke hearts would be pretty yummy on this.

Bake at 375 for another 8 minutes or so. Until it's done. TRUE CONFESSION... I don't really time these things so these times are just a guess. But it's pretty close. Just watch through the window and don't take it out until the cheese is melted and the pizza is hot enough to burn the roof of your mouth, the way pizza is supposed to do.

Let it sit out of the oven a few minutes, cut and serve. Afterwards, watch your family generously offer to clean up because you cooked such a fine meal.

See? Swarming to clean. I tell ya, it's the best. My family is the best.

So I've blogged and now I'm off to tackle another week. How about you?